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Friday, July 20, 2012

Its more of a genre of writing that I can not not not read... is the young adult paranormal stories. Maybe its more paranormal story lines. Or science fiction. Ugh I can not do it. It is too far from the truth for me... or too crazy for me. My girlfriend really loves those paranormal books and explains stories to me when we are having our book swapping conversations. She laughs that I just look at her with a "deer in headlight" look on my face.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

My daughter's birthday is coming up and she has been begging for a "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" Pool Party. Non stop... I was dreading this. Ugh how am I going to do this! Let's put the thinking cap on... hmm... Ah Ha! Idea... I will make all the girls "Izzy" inspired bandannas to wear and then they can adorn their blow up swords and VOILA! PARTY!!!

So I thought I would outline, document, tutorial, whatever my design for anyone else so that another mommy in need may not sweat it out.

Off to the fabric store I went. Our local Joann's Fabric (coupon in hand of course!) and I found some fabric that matched. Its a country classic, 100% cotton, easy to work with, and $4.99 a yard (add a 50% off coupon makes it cheap). Plus I needed something that would withstand water and wear and tear.

Next was to come up with a pattern. I went out to the garage and grabbed my freezer paper. If you don't have some, cardboard works too. What is freezer paper? Oh it is great for crafts, wrapping meat (ha ha hence freezer paper), wrapping packages for shipping, etc. I snooped around online and found that the standard bandanna size is 21.5" x 21.5". So for my beginner sewing skills, I measured and cut the paper to be 22" x 22".

Now it was time to lay it all out, material and template, and start cutting. Well luck for me, the material I picked was 22" wide! So it was pretty simple. I laid out my material, folded in half. Then I laid my template on top, grabbed my daughters chalk (works great and doesn't leave a permanent mark) and marked out the bandannas. Since I have 12 wonderful girls coming over, I had 6 yards of material to contend with. It was a breeze. So after I marked my template on my material, it was time for cutting. I cut along my chalk line. Now remember, this material was 22"already, 44" wide folded in half. So I then unfolded each and cut again. Making a perfect 22" x 22" size.

On to hemming the edges. Now for some weird reason, this had me nervous. I looked up purchasing a hemming foot for the sewing machine. I went to my local sewing shop, a super cute quilt shop called In Between Stitches, to inquire about this foot since I couldn't find it at Walmart or Joann's Fabrics. The nicest employee told me not to sweat it. She said fold the edges over a 1/4" and iron flat. Then fold again 1/4" and iron again. Pin and slap it on the sewing machine and your done. Well sounds easy enough right... Feeling confident in my new directions... off I go to tackle this. I pulled out my ironing board, grabbed my iron, and my pin.

I folded over and pinned about 1/4" of material on one edge and then ironed. Now I just "stabbed" the pin into the material and then into the padding of the ironing board. I didn't get all fancy with my pinning. Once I ironed it flat, I removed the pins and folded over again. Once again, I pinned the material down and ironed. I did this around all four sides. Leave a few pins in to keep the material folded over for sewing.

OK lets pull out the sewing machine!!! I get it all threaded and all dialed in. I used the zigzag stitch on these. I liked the look and to me it was a little more secure. I'm not sure if my thinking is correct or not. As I mentioned before, I have 12 lovely little ladies coming so I chose to pin and iron all first. So that when I sat at the machine, I could zip right through them.

I fastened off the thread ends after going around all four sides. And BAM!!! I had a Izzy Inspired bandanna.

I hope these directions are helpful and you can create your little one a bandanna as well.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

My speed of reading is dependent on the book. If I am really into it... it can take me a few days. If its a decent book, then a week. If I am struggling through it but need to finish (I hate not finishing a book even when I hate it) it can take alot longer. Like the "Hunger Games" trilogy... the first two books took me a week to read both. I was so engrossed in them. Now the third book was painful for me to get through. I didn't like it. I didn't like the over all theme of the militaryish drama. That bores me... I ended up putting it down and reading two other books and then with a bunch of persuasion from a few friends... I finished.

Now I am off to do some hopping around and see what some of you have answered.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Snip it from Goodreads.com - "The School of Essential Ingredients follows the lives of eight students who gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen."

My Review - This story touched my heart. I personally love books that each chapter is about a different character and opens up the door to a little more of that character. This was how this book was. Although each chapter related to the book, it revealed more about a specific character, explaining the way they came to be in this cooking class. Let me say, I was ready to cook after reading each chapter!!! It certainly made me take a different view on throwing a bunch of stuff in a pot and cooking it. They way they made thanksgiving dinner yet in such a different fashion was wonderful. You know how they say people need smell-a-vision for Food Network, well they need to make sctatch and sniff for adult books. It was an all around fantiastic book, loving, great story line, and loveable characters. Definately one to read on vacation or on a beach.

Friday, July 6, 2012

So a year ago I read "Still Alice" and then "Left Neglected" by Lisa Genova. But with her new book "Love Anthony" due to release in September 25, 2012, I wanted to finally post my review about these two books. They have resonated in my mind even a year later.

"Still Alice" was a book I chose for my mom's club (a group of stay at home moms that support one another with life and children) book club read. Oh wow... so many loved it. I in particular. My grandfather suffered from Alzheimer's such as this character in the book. In "Still Alice" the main character has been diagnosed with having a type of Alzheimer's. She is a successful professor, published articles, and has a happy marriage. But soon she starts forgetting more and more all the time. It is a story about her life going through this disease. It touched me alot to hear about her troubles. And having a grandfather that suffered, it was interesting to see the other side of it. It was a moving book and one that I will keep recommending to others.

Immediately after finishing "Still Alice" I ran to the library to see more from this author. I found "Left Neglected". What a FANTASTIC book! It was absolutely by far one of the best books that I have read in a long time. I totally found it interesting to read about a trauma such as Left Neglect. So left neglect is where your brain can not process things on the left side of your body. It thinks that let's say... you move your left hand but in reality it is just dangling at your side or in the case Sarah, the main character, its stuck in her pants! While I was reading, I would look up and try to invision the left side being gone. Or being there but I can't tell. Sarah tries to cope with life and her kids and her husband with finding the boundries of this trauma.

So surely you can see my excitement for the next novel "Love Anthony" which is about an 8yr old with autism. Yay September 25th can't come soon enough!!!

I have participated in this before and now am excited to participate again. This is the books blogger hop from Crazy-For-Books.com. The question this week is...

If you could be a character from any book, who would you be?

Hmm... let me think... I think I would love to be the character Lydia from the books and series "The Good Yarn Shop" by Debbie Macomber. This is part of the Blossom Street series. I grew up crocheting. My grandmother taught me and my mom helped as well. In this series, Lydia owns a yarn shop on a quaint little street where everyone knows everyone else. She teaches knitting classes and that forms a great collection of women with all kinds of personality and story. The entire series is a wonderfully light hearted. But I can find that I can relate. My crocheting is very therapeutic and relaxing. And wouldn't it be wonderful to have a shop that can have so much character. My shop would have to have a book section and a yarn section to combine my two passions.

Hope you enjoy. I look forward to hopping around this weekend. Happy Friday to all!!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

I recently came across someone at the gym reading a book that just looked interesting. I am a big fan of "judging a book by its cover" when it comes to books. I checked my local library and lucky me... they had it. It was a young adult series called "The Lying Game" by Sara Shepard.

Fantastic book!!! It was about a girl who finds out she has a twin. After some investigating, she arranges to meet with her. What little does she know at the beginning is this twin has been murdered and she walks right in to her life and has been threatened to live as her twin and not say a word. But intertwined in this story is the dead twin is following her. She has no memory of how she died or some parts of her life.

It was a great way to spin a story. Really interesting. But the best part was how the ending really doesn't end. Hence book two... "Never Have I Ever". Off to the library I go... and look at that!!! It was like it was waiting for me to check out!

A great sequel to the first book. More mystery, more great story lines, more eliminations of potential murders and yet more suspects appear. Really well written. I absolutely love how there are story lines with in story lines. I read it super fast because I couldn't wait to find out what happens. Emma (alive twin) and Sutton (dead twin) continue their discoveries of who done it! As soon as I was half way through the book I looked online at the library copies of book 3 "Two Truths and a Lie". Oh no... there was a waiting list. So I jumped on it and finished up book 2. Lucky me again, the book 3 was available the day I was finishing up book 2. How wonderful!!!

Again the intertwined stories were good. The who done it kept me guessing. I think I know who may have killed Sutton at this point, but not completely sure. Because I have thought a few people may have but then turned out innocent. This is a good series. And it is teen lit which is sometimes a nice switch from some of the other books that I read. I can not wait for book 4 to come out as sadly it is not out yet. BooHoo... But on the flip side. I did get four of my friends to start the series with me. They all enjoyed the series and we had a good time passing the books around before I had to return them to the library. Needless to say... Sara Shepard, you have five new fans.

While on Pinterest the other night, I found a great looking "mini avocado salad" recipe. But sadly as you clicked on the link, there wasn't the recipe to be found. Several people asked in the comment area for the recipe as they couldn't find it either... whew not just me. So looking in my kitchen, I had avocados (thank you Safeway for the 4 for $5 sale) and I had home grown tomatoes... so I thought... I could do this myself. I grabbed the items I thought I needed...

I cut up my avocado and my tomatoes. I had home grown cherry tomatoes and early girl tomatoes ready to go.